The award was conceived with the aim of rewarding the best unpublished
novella – regardless of whether the author was established or unknown – with input from
Oviedo cultural figures such as
Emilio Alarcos Llorach, Juan Benito Argüelles, , , Belarmino Álvarez Otero, Jaime Herrero, and Pepe Grossi (who all joined the Tribuna Ciudadana cultural association which was instituted three years later). It was presented for the first time at the Tigre Juan pub, located at Calle Mon No. 16, a meeting place for artists in the old area of Oviedo that was owned by Álvarez Otero, the award's first sponsor. In 1986, the Municipal Culture Foundation of the City Council took over the award, expanding its monetary prize and providing it with an organizational infrastructure in order to achieve a greater national presence. Four years later the bases of the contest were modified in order to reward the best first published narrative work, and made the award into the first one that supported, in addition to the author, the publisher who was taking a risk on a writer's first work. Its winners were generally young (although the 26th edition was won by 74-year-old filmmaker and novelist
José Luis Borau). This second stage, in which the award achieved its greatest prominence, lasted until 2003. A new change in the bases led to awards from 2004 to 2007 for unpublished novels by established or well-known authors, but in 2008 it resumed the modality of awarding the best first narrative work in Spanish. The first endowment of this award was 100,000
pesetas; the 2009 award was €54,000 (€40,000 for the author and the rest for the publisher). The award was canceled in January and was delivered in May of the following year during the Oviedo Book Fair. In November 2009, citing the
2008 financial crisis as a reason, the city council announced that it was suspending its financing. Now the prize – a statuette inspired by an engraving by the Asturian artist Jaime Herrero and representing the character Tigre Juan – is given in the autumn and has no financial endowment. The award was given in 2010 and 2011 at the , and in 2012 at the Traslaburra restaurant in Oviedo. ==Winners==